Like I Do - Camren

Chapter 14

Camila's POV
Lauren came out of the lounge and sat down next to me. "Hey. I heard about what happened with Austin..." She says. I look down and shrug. "It's fine. I just thought that maybe he had interest in me as a person..... not as..." I trailed off. "Well, he's just a dickhead. He doesn't deserve you." She shook her head and pulled my into a hug. "Thanks, Lolo." I said into her neck. "No problem, Camz." She starts to play with my hair. "So, I can't help but wonder what you were saying yesterday, before he showed up. You just looked so flustered...." I say, sitting up a bit to look into her eyes. "Oh, yeah." She avoids eye contact. "What was it?" I ask, curiously watching the nervousness in her eyes. "Nothing. It's not important. Maybe I'll tell you another time." She breathed out, relaxing slightly when I nodded. I stood up and stretched my arms up. "I'm gonna go head to bed, it's getting late and I need sleep." I say. "Ok. Good night Camzi." She smiles and I walk to my bunk.

After an hour of tossing and turning in silence, I hear voices. "I almost told her. I was so close..... I just chickened out." I hear Lauren say with a sigh. "It's fine, for now. She needs to know, though." I hear Dinah say. I climb quietly out of my bunk and stand in the doorway of the dining area, and neither of the girls notice me. "I know, I really need to tell her. It's been eating at me a lot recently." Lauren shakes her head. "Mila needs to know, and before it's too late." Dinah replies. "Know what?" I finally speak. Both of the girls jump and turn to look at me, Lauren with a red face. "Camila, hey! Uh... How long have you been standing there?" She asks, nervously playing with her fingers. "Just for a minute. What were you guys talking about? Did I do something wrong?" I start to panic and immediately feel Lauren's arms around me. "No, of course not. Forget about it. It's nothing." She rubs my back. I pull away. "You're lying to me. If I did something you can just tell me.... I don't want to be a disappointment to you guys or anything." I look down. "Aw, Camz. It's not anything bad about you." Lauren tries to comfort me. "So you admit it's about me?" I ask. "Yes, but it's not bad. I swear." She wraps her arms back around me and I melt into her grip. "Ok. I trust you." I say. By now I notice that Dinah has disappeared. "Hey, where did Dinah go?" I ask. "That's a good question. I don't know." She replies.

After I leave Lauren alone in the dining area I head to bed. I toss and turn until I can't stand it anymore, and decide to get on my phone on tumblr. I repost a few things and then I hear a slight gasp from Lauren. "Lo?" I ask. "Camz? I saw what you just posted on tumblr....." She says, and we both open our curtains to see each other. "Ok...?" I raise an eyebrow. "Um, I didn't know you were into girls....." She says. Immediately my face goes red. "Wh-what?" I ask. "You may need to go re-read those things, Camz." She shakes her head. I look down and see the things I posted were mostly about being in love with a girl. I was so caught up in thinking about Lauren that I never noticed what they really said. "Oh. Um.... It doesn't mean I necessarily like, uh, girls like that.... I just liked the quotes a lot." I quickly say. She nods. "Well, goodnight." I quickly say and close my curtain.

"Camz, it's not a bad thing." Lauren says after a minute. "Huh?" I ask. "Liking girls. You know I do. Just, if you do you shouldn't hide it. And if you do, I'll be here in case you want to tell me." She replies. "Thanks, Lolo. It means a lot." I say. She just hums in response, so I roll over and finally fall asleep.

****

I wake up and immediately smell something burning. I groan and roll out of bed. I walk into the kitchen, a blanket draped around my shoulders. The time on the clock says 7:34 am, and it makes me wonder who is up trying to burn the kitchen down. I cough a little and wave some smoke out of my face with my blanket. "Good morning." I say, noticing how raspy my voice is at this ungodly hour. "Morning, Mila. Mind giving me a hand?" I hear Dinah ask, and she turns around so I can see her face. "Sure. Just, uh, what the hell are you trying to do?" I was closer to her. "Well, I was gonna make bacon..... but it's all black. Not that I have anything against black, but I don't think is natural for bacon." She says. "Well, you start by turning the stove off. I'm gonna go open the door and we can get this smoke cleared." I chuckle, and turn the stove off before opening the door. "Walz, where are your pants?" Dinah asks. "In my bed somewhere, I think. Who needs pants?" I ask, playfully. "True." She says.

We finally clear the smoke a bit, and by now the girls are all up and complaining about the smell. "You could've asked me to help you." Ally whines to Dinah. "Bitch, I tried. You wouldn't get your ass outta bed, so I did it myself." Dinah crossed her arms over her chest. "Tried." Mani pointed out. "Ay, no one asked you." Dinah snapped back, playfully. "Hey, where's Lauren?" I ask, disregarding whatever comeback Mani was going for. "Still asleep, I think. She didn't wanna get up." Ally said. "Oh, ok. Hey, can you make me some banana pancakes?" I asked her, with pouty lips. "Ugh. Fine. Not like I'm gonna be able to get any more sleep." She said, and walked past me.

I finally decided after I ate that it was time to get Lauren up. I made my way to her bunk and pulled back the curtain to reveal a sleeping Lauren. "Hey, time to get up. It's nearly 10 o'clock and we're already on the road again." I said. "Go away." She groans into her pillow. "No, I'm bored, Lo. Entertain me." I say, pulling on her pillow. I hear we mumble something like "you don't wanna do the things that entertain you with me." But I wasn't quite sure. "What was that?" Immediately her eyes shot open. "Nothing!" She says quickly, and her face is red. "Haha, weirdo. Get up." I throw her pillow at her and go back into the dining area. The girls are off in the lounge doing whatever but I pull tumblr up on my phone at the table.

After a minute, Lauren walks out. "Morning, Camz." She mumbles. "Morning, Lolo." I reply, handing her a mug of coffee, which she gladly takes, and sits down across from me. "What're you doing?" She asks, sleepily. "I'm just scrolling through tumblr." I shrug. "Oh, cool." She replies. I chuckle and lock my phone screen before setting it down on the table in front of me.

I watch closely as Lauren sips at her drink and tries to avoid looking at me. "What?" She finally asks. "Nothing. You're just really cute in the morning." I shrug, and she blushes, causing me to smile. I was hoping she would catch on that it was flirting, but I don't think she did. "Thanks, Camz, you too." She says back, and I rub my forehead. "How did you sleep last night?" She asks, setting her mug down. "Fine. I fell asleep around 2 so waking up at 7:30 was exhausting." I reply. "Oh, yeah. When Dinah tried to burn the kitchen down. I was too lazy to get up, so I let you guys take care of it." She chuckled. "You punk." I reached over and kicked her shin with my foot. "Ow. Well, hey. I didn't fall asleep until almost 5 this morning, so....." She said rubbing the sore spot. "Well, I never told you to stay up so late." I shrug, and stick my tongue out. "No, you didn't. But that doesn't mean you didn't have a part in it...." She looks down. "Huh?" I raise an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, extremely curious now. "Um....." She sighs. "Camz, I need to tell you something."